So I didn't see the show first hand but a buddy of mine did and I watched a stream of it so I do need to caveat that not seeing it in person may have affected my opinion. However, I did get some validated statements in regards to the actual show.
The beginning was strong. I actually loved that part for the most part. It was definitely an upgrade minus the fact Mickey choreo is way more stiff and less whimsical. Now he simply just points and laughs rather than do his little symphony dance. Another downside, pyrotechnics were better utilized in the beginning of Fantasmic 1.0.
Flower Scene 100% no complaints. Done perfect in the upgrade.
Loved Upgrade for the jungle/dumbo portion. However I think I like the fantasmic 1.0 dumbo music more so than the 2.0.
Storytelling wise for the scenes after dumbo and before the whale scence, fantasmic 1.0 was more coherent. Fantasmic 2.0 made it confusing as they seemed to just shoe horn IPs in rather than making it actually tell the story better. Going from Aladdin to little mermaid than finding dory, then to just sting rays then the goldfish in Pinocchio did little whereas going from telling a short piece of Pinocchio is very more effective.
Following Pinocchio, I still don't know why they use the ship piece, it creates a visual hassle for guests and takes too much time leaving so much dead space. At least with pan they had tick tock behind it. I'm really disappointed here.
Princess montage, less is more. I hated having anything other than the floats lit. It distracts from the characters and takes your attention away. This area is less is more especially with Tangled. I know what they were trying to do with the laterns but it didn't do it justice. The Aladdin scene was kinda messy and I don't think I enjoyed it too much.
Now for the worst part of the show. The nightmare portion. What the hell? The evil queen to hag was so much better than the mickey transfer to the mirror transition. There was so much more they could have done during the villain section yet they lacked any innovation and creativity to make it actually better. I'm so disappointed.
The killing of the dragon was a upgrade I will say that much but still disappointed. There could've been a lot more villainy than what was displayed.
As the ending when all the characters come out. I actually think they should've kept tinker bell instead of all the rainbow lights and let her be the segue to the ship lighting while putting characters on the stage as well where people actually see them. Because most people didn't even realize Mickey Minnie Donald Disney Goofy and Pluto were on stage the entire time.
I'm fine with the ending.
The biggest plus is it way more colorful which in fact makes it seem more fun. They plussed the visual effects, the lightning, everything . At the same time, the lightning actually took away a lot while visually stunning, colors are able to elict emotional responses from people. Due to the visual overload especially at the moments when it should hit on nostalgia and elict sentimental feelings, the overload of all the rainbow colors very much takes away and distracts rather than adds.
I'm disappointed yet again that Mulan, Tiana, Pochantas, the mexican princesses, were not part of the main show nor had any representation whatsoever (Tiana was on the boat at the end). I know Aladdin is Disney's next big movie but outside Belle and Ariel, there are a lot of other princesses who get very minimal visibility in the parks and it would be nice to represent them especially for a company who main thing it seems to push now is diversity.
I give it so far a 7/10.